Professor Marcus Banks (Director of ISCA)
Teaching and research interests
Visual anthropology and ethnographic film, Indian urban society and Jainism; ethnicity, nationalism, and neo-nationalism; visual research methods and visual methodologies.
Following earlier research in India and the UK on the social organization of the Jain community, and later on anthropological theories of ethnicity and nationalism, Marcus Banks has spent the last few years conducting research in the area of visual anthropology. Recent research interests include the history of a small city in western India, cinematographic practice in Colonial India, the history of ethnographic film, and the development of robust visual research methodologies. His current research, funded by the University’s John Fell Fund, is on the practice of forensic science, with a particular focus on production and consumption of images in forensic contexts.
With Jay Ruby (Temple University) he recently co-edited a book on the current ‘state of play’ in visual anthropology (Made to be Seen), and with Richard Vokes (University of Canterbury, NZ) he co-edited a special issue of History and Anthropology on historical photography (Routes and Traces).
Current and selected past DPhil students
Santhy Balachandran
The aesthetics of identity: wedding photography and the Sikh diaspora in the UK
Jowel Canuday
Video Compact Discs, Identity Making, and the Cosmopolitan Imagination in Southern Philippines
Ka Kin Cheuk (Kin’s webpage)
Indians in a Chinese Textile City: The Future of Traders in an Upgrading Economy
Melody Cox
Masks and Museums: Creating Cultural Identity Through the Visual Arts
Melanie Griffiths
Identity Problems and Problems of Identification for (failed) Asylum Seekers and Immigration Detainees
Emilie LeFebvre
Visual Knowledge in the Negev: Bedouin Engagement with Visual Materials and Representational Antagonism in Israel
Starr Thibodo
Invisible No Longer: An Ethnographic Engaged Approach to Visual Media and Street Children
Sirara Thobani
The Anthropology of Indian Classical Dance and the Politics of Nation
Selected Past Students
Joe Arun (2004)
From Outcaste to Caste: The Use Of Symbols And Myths In The Construction Of Identity: A Study Of Conflict Between The Paraiyars And The Vanniyars In Tamil Nadu, South India
Cathy Baldwin (2011) (Cathy’s webpage)
Broadcasting Britishness? Multi-Ethnic Media Audiences, The News and Identity in Swindon
Alicia Blum Ross (2010) (Alicia’s webpage)
'It made our eyes get bigger': Youth Filmmaking and Citizenship in London
Laila Halani (2005)
Discourses of religion and development : agency, empowerment and choices for Muslim women in Gujarat, India
Gabriel Hanganu (2010)
The Social Lives of Romanian Orthodox Christian Icons
Kabir Heimsath (2011)
Urban Space of Lhasa
Goren Janev (2007)
The Informal Political Organization of Albanians and Macedonians in Republic of Macedonia
Mioko Kurosawa (2008)
Cultural Encounter and Exchange: Japanese Art and Artists in London
Analyn Salvador-Amores (2011)
Batok (Tattoos): Tattooing Identities, Tradition And Modernity In Contemporary Kalinga Society, North Luzon Philippines
Publications
For a list of publications, please click here.
For video: Doing visual research: Marcus Banks talks about visual research on the new Sage Publishers 'Methodspace' research methods please click here